fitri,nganthi,wani,after,my,father,dissapeared,wiji,thukul, Hoping Wiji Thukul to Come (Back) VHRmedia.com

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We obviously do not only lose the word to express the cruelty of the human rights violations, but also lose the power to face and to settle them. Hannah Arendt expressed our powerless in an attractive sentence: “We cannot forgive something we cannot punish and we cannot punish the thing that is unforgivable.” Indonesia is one of those pathetic and powerless countries. If we keep our position being powerless, then we have just committed a sin to those victims and the future.

 

How we just become the witnesses to the authoritarian regime that had left the unsettled felonies against the humanity. Some people have done their best for that issue but they seemed to lunge at a very thick wall made of steel. The Trisakti case, the activists kidnapping, the murder of Munir, and others are suspended by the authority officers. The suspension is usually come up with many reasons that are also usually we don’t comprehend.

 

Fitri Nganthi Wani is one of the victims.

 

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Fitri Nganthi Wani is the first child of Wiji Thukul, a poet who involved himself a lot in politics. Thukul is widely known by the community as a poet. Most of his poems were shared out in the form of cheap photocopy. He was also a street musician in Solo and its vicinity. He held many workshops for children and workers in Sukabumi, Bandung, and Jakarta. He was also involved in a rally against the contamination of environment by a factory nearby his village in 1992.

 

Wiji Thukul’s poems were loud and confrontational. He criticized the government that practiced a systematically violence against the citizenries and let them living in poverty. Wiji Thukul has been missing since 1996 and has never been found since then. The last line of his poem entitled “Warning” that says ‘then, there is only one word: fight!’ became the main slogan of the secondary school and university students’ demonstrations which had taken part in ending Soeharto’s administration in 1998.

 

On Tuesday, June 16, 2009, a collection of poems entitled “Selepas Bapakku Hilang (After My Father Disappeared)” which is written by Fitri Nganthi Wani was launched at the center of arts in Jakarta, Taman Ismail Marzuki. The Graha Bakti Budaya hall was full of audiences that night. The life story of Wiji Thukul seemed to influence the people to come by. That book launching which was held by the Institute for the Studies on Free Flow of Information (ISAI) was not only crowded by the guests and the human rights activists but was also made lively by Oppie Andaresta, PM Toh, and Iwan Fals performances. Iwan Fals even sang one of Wani’s poems.

 

The collection of poems which was published in bilingual contains 88 poems written by Wani since she was in elementary school up to senior high school. After reading these 88 poems, we might feel that most of the poems were written as the foot note for vary experiences of her life: personal, family, social, and politics.

 

On the introduction of this book, Richard Curtis said Wani has experienced a long term and serious trauma caused by the violence and intimidation addressed to her family as they tried to find her father. Wani’s longing for a father figure was poured out onto this poem:

 

 

Fitri Nganthi Wani was born on May 6, 1989. She was raised in a dense populated village in Kampung Kalangan, Solo, Central Java province. Dyah Sujirah is her mother’s name. Her mother is also usually called as Sipon by her friends and neighbors. They often come to her house to sew their clothes. As Wiji Thukul disappeared, Sipon becomes a single parent and has to struggle alone to overcome all household matters including to provide their daily needs. Besides Wani, Sipon has also to support Wani’s younger brother, Fajar Merah, and Wani’s grandmother, Atmo Juari.

 

That traumatic situation has made the relationship between Wani and her family even closer. Wani wrote a poem about Fajar Merah who often cries knowing he is not as lucky as his friends who have parents in complete mates. The poem entitles “My Brother’s Longing for Father”.

 

Wani has already known about literature since she was a kid. Her father always encourages Wani to participate in a learning activity at Suka Banjir Workshop. This workshop place which took place in the middle room of his rent house was established for their neighbor’s children. This workshop studio was aimed to help those children who could not afford to go to school. The experience in this workshop studio had given Wani a basic of how to convey her opinion through poems.

 

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Of course, Wani’s poems are not only about social and politics. Some of Wani’s poems were about teenager’s puppy love. Rani’s skill in writing poems was used by some of her school friends to write love poems. This can be seen in some of her poems: “The True Lover”, “In Waiting”, and “Fallen in Love”.

 

Her school experiences also became the theme of her poems. What makes it interesting is that Wani criticizes the education condition using poem.

 

 

It won’t be too much if I expect Wani will stand as brave as her father in her poems. Although, I can also understand that Wani is just a young woman who lives her life in happiness and still confusingly searching for her self identity. But, just like her name which means “brave”, Wani has proven that felony and injustice against human rights is something to be conquered. This poems collection is one of the efforts for that aim. Wani is also true to what she wrote. She is only a young woman who wants to share her life experiences – bitter sweet experiences – about losing a most loved person which is in fact assumed as the “enemy” of the state (Our Nation’s Classic Story, page 20)

 

 

So! (E6)

 

Harri Gieb, a poem lover who lives in Jakarta.